Post by toddsmitts on Feb 23, 2010 3:37:55 GMT -5
A theme throughout this episode was people covering other people's back. We saw this not only with Scotty covering for Lilly, but also with Biggie (a witness to Mia's murder) covering for Gargantuan. This makes me wonder if Hank really did kill Moe, since the storyline seemed to end abruptly. Did Hank really do it, or is he covering up for someone else? Like his wife? Or maybe even Lilly??
Wow, boxman I wasn't even thinking any further because it's so like the writers to drop things and just move on.
Now Hank's wife as the doer would be interesting but so would Scotty and Lilly. I'm curious what you thought about Lilly and Scotty's talk on the roof. They really didn't converse but spoke kind of cryptically. I do not have the script as I didn't tape the episode. It was just an odd segment.
I was kind of sorry to see it end so abruptly, but I guess you can't have Lilly on active duty if she's a person-of-interest in a homicide. It's one thing to have Stillman suspended or Jeffries chained to his desk for a couple of episodes, but no WAY are writers ever gonna sideline Lilly for that long.
I still maintain that there would've been better choices than Hank. I still would've liked to have had Saccardo become a suspect and have the state detectives tell Lilly to call them if he contacts her again, putting her in a difficult position. Unlike some people here, I have nothing against the character. I just think there's more long-term story potential that way. Or what if Lilly learns that FINN found her gun, and winds up being a suspect (not a doer) briefly!?
That being said, there's an interesting spin on the usual next-of-kin of a victim here. Usually, we just have them see the victims "ghost" and we just assume they have enough closure to get on with their lives, but that can't possibly be the case all the time, especially since (though we never see it) some doers are invariably going to make bail, get a pitifully light sentence, or maybe even get off altogether. What does THAT do to you?
We explicitly saw a flashback of Moe's murder, and in the history of the show flashbacks can sometimes be misleading, they're never outright false. So, yes, I think it was Hank that offed Moe, not his wife or anyone else.
So there you have it. Not the way I would've had it play out, but it gave us something to talk about.
Now for the case itself. Yet again we have the victim "quitting" something, as we have in a number of other eps, though in all fairness, it at least didn't feel as cliche as in this season's "Forensics".
The neat twist for me was the revelation of who and what "Gargantuan" really was. Who else here imagined this might end up like Lenny from "Of Mice and Men" and have him hurt Mia without meaning to while trying to show his affection? I bet the writers (Danny being one of them, of course) were counting on this, and went in the complete opposite direction. Instead, Gargantuan's seemingly child-like persona was a front for a ruthlessly intelligent man pulling the strings with no one knowing it. If anything I wish they'd made him come off a bit more sinister once his secret was out. Would've match up better with the menacing look on the face of his younger self when he throttled poor Mia with just one hand.
Some other notes:
-I imaging finding actors with a suitable resemblence is difficult enough without dealing with extreme proportions like you have with Biggie and Gargantuan, so kudos to them for still finding some actors that match the younger and older versions at least somewhat. Notice the younger Gargantuan has only one line, however, when he flashes to his younger self in the final interview, and which appears to be dubbed by Carel Struycken (just as Anthony John Crane has always been dubbed by John Finn as the younger Stillman). I'm guessing the voice didn't match up as much.
-I'm sure most people recognized Carel Struycken from the "Addams Family" movies (and perhaps some fans of "Star Trek" and "Twin Peaks" will remember him as well), and I'm sure Michael John Anderson is familiar to any "Carnivale" fans here. Dakin Matthews ("Cleo") is a veteran character actor with a long list of credits. I'm sure you've probably seen him in something.
-The Doors song "Riders on the Storm" was also played in "The Woods".
-Biggie's quick to suggest Gargantuan's probably dead now (didn't want cops talking to him, does he?), pointing out (correctly) that giants often don't live long. Andre the Giant only lived to be 46. The tallest known man in history, the 8 foot 11 inch 490 lb Robert Wadlow only lived to be 22 (and was still growing at the time of his death!)
-I'm surprised little was said of the fate of Mia's parents. I assumed it was probably some performance accident, but it never came up. Perhaps there was a line cut somewhere. Makes me wonder how many other cut scenes we've been deprived of over the years. I found some for "Cargo" on Youtube (check the thread for that episode), but that's it.
-At last, a mention of Doherty again! I'm still hoping for an actual appearance soon, though. With a rather high-profile case coming up in the next few weeks, we can hope.
-Brief mention of Scotty's mama. Probably won't have much time next week to bring it up, but you gotta remind people that ball's still in the air.
-It's a subtle thing some people might not have noticed, but Hank talks about his wife, suggesting they may have reconciled (remember they split up after Kate's disappearance). Perhaps people just took for granted that they were back together when we saw them together and the end of "Into the Blue".
-Weird that Hank was suspected of killing someone suspected of being complicit in Kate's death in Lilly's dream, then did it for real.
-Speaking of Hank, he has some similarities to the dad in "Revenge". After their chlid's death, they both go out and shoot someone who, while not directly respsonsible, was, in their own way, more evil than the actual doer. I wonder what will become of Kate's mother now.
Next week, conratulations to Louie! (Assuming his bride to be's not a murderer, of couse)
